Tuesday, April 26, 2016

I’ve wanted to do a video on “dry-brining” for a while now,
and was reminded of that fact after recently seeing a friend’s blog post on the subject. That friend would be the lovely and talented, Jennifer Yu,
who publishes the blog, Use Real Butter.

Seeing those juicy pork chops in her
post inspired this video, which features one of my favorite getting-meat-ready-for-the-grill
techniques of all time. If you can call sprinkling salt on pork chops, a
“technique,” and for the purposes of this post, we will.

By the way, if this looks
familiar, it should. We’ve used this trick before in previous videos, but
just never called it “dry-brining,” mostly because that’s not a thing. By
definition, a “brine” is a liquid, but since this contains the same active
ingredients, and has the same effect, we don’t let a minor detail like no water
get in our way.

While our friend Kenji will do a much
better job explaining the science behind this magical method, I think I did a decent
job in the video explaining how wonderfully this works. As long as you don’t
horribly overcook your meat, this “dry-brine” technique will produce the
juiciest, and most flavorful pork chops you’ve ever had.

So, a big thank you to Jennifer for
inspiring us, as well as to Kenji for inspiring her. With peak grilling season right around the
corner, I really do hope you give this amazingly simple trick a try soon.
Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4
large pork chops:

2 tablespoons kosher
salt

1 teaspoon freshly
ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne
pepper

- Mix and apply
generously to both sides of the chops. Let “brine” uncovered in the fridge for
18-24 hours. Some say you can do this in less time, but I’ve always let it go at
least overnight.

21 comments:

Mmm these remind me of the good ol' days out in the forest where I could just whack a wild pig with a wooden sword until pork chops fell out of it. Then I'd throw them in a cobblestone furnace to grill up to perfection.

Do you think that recipe/technique would be good with chicken? (although, I can't think of much that isn't good with chicken.)

I always use bone-in, skin-on chicken, unless it's for kebabs, stir fry etc.. A favorite chicken "go to," is Kosher salt/black pepper/cayenne ... and a drop, or two, of "Kitchen Bouquet." So, it wouldn't be much of a departure.

I've never tried applying a rub, or seasoning, under the skin for a marinade for a full 24 hours.

I hate to be pedantic but a "dry brine" is another way of describing a short-term "cure."

My favorite blend is a couple big handfuls of fresh sage, stems and all. A couple sprigs of fresh rosemary, and a big wad of fresh thyme. I grind it all up in a food processor with 1/2 a head of garlic and some red pepper flakes. Then I add 2 cups of kosher salt and grind it until it's a thick, bright green, dry-ish paste.

I transfer the processed "paste" into a big mixing bowl with another 2 cups of kosher salt and stir until it's thoroughly combined. The end result is salamoia, what ueed to be a seasoning blend for Italian salumi, but turns out to be an extremely versatile seasoning salt for all kinds of applications.

One of my favorites is seasoning for roast chicken. But it's great on sauteed vegetables, in salad dressing, even popcorn (although my wife disagrees on this point). It is especially terrific on meats intended for high temperature grilling. Salamoia keeps well for several months in a cool, dry cupboard. I am hooked on it.

I've given out batches of salamoia as cheap gifts (in fancy bottles with festive ribbons, Martha Stewart-style) to friends and colleagues, and everybody loves the stuff. You should check it out sometime.

Our pork cuts are locally raised but the pork products we receive are frozen. You have many great recipes. Do you advise defrosting the meat then rubs and brines or going ahead and adding those flavors and reps while frozen and defrosting?

I've played with dry brine in a few applications. I find that it's really good for thinner foods. I've used dry brine on pork shoulder and you get a lot of hot spots with the saltiness. Do you worry at all about the thickness of the chops here? Also, dry brine actually brings a lot of moisture from the meat to the surface. I was surprised not to see any chop juice under the rack in the fridge. Maybe it was because you left them uncovered? A great way to develop a pellicle that smoke from a grill sticks to. I've never seen anyone grill a chop on the bone tip before. I'm stealing this idea! Thank you, sir.

These do produce a juicy chop but I found them a bit on the salty side for my taste. I may have applied the rub a little heavier than you did but it is hard to tell. I will be making this again but will definitely pare down the amount I use to try and find a personal sweet spot for the amount.

Hi Chef!I made a "Food Wish" on your latest Greek Chicken video about de-boning and stuffing chicken thighs. I'd still love to see your take on that, because I recently de-boned a bunch of chicken thighs myself, with varying results, however, I took a couple out of the freezer early yesterday to try this method on them. I must say, they came out amazingly! I have done the pork chops (boneless, loin chops for a dinner party, and wound up being propositioned by one of my guests to be her: "Other husband"), but it was just me tonight so a couple little boneless chicken thighs were good enough for dinner. Makes me wonder what else this method might work on? Thus begins the alchemy! Cheers!Dale

I used your dry brine, and my daughter and I loved it. My wife liked it, too, but said it was a little salty for her taste. If I want to reduce saltines, would it be better to reduce the amount of salt in the dry brine, or decrease the amount of time I let it sit in the fridge before I cook it?

I've dry brined for years after learning about the benefits elsewhere on the net. Some thoughts based on questions here...

1. I dry brine all of my beef, lamb, pork and poultry. The physics behind it work equally well.

2. For poultry I loosen the skin over the breast and thighs, and dry brine on top of the skin as well as sprinklng/rubbing salt underneath since the salt does not penetrate poultry skin. It may not be a good idea to dry brine commercial turkey since most or all are already injected with a brine solution before packaging.

3. I cover my meat in the fridge because it doesn't really affect the salt intake. I have seen recommendations from those more knowledgeable than me to leave it uncovered though. Personal choice? If you find it too dry after leaving uncovered though....

4. If you salt meat it will initially draw water to the surface, for up to an hour or so, but as the salt dissolves from that water/juice, the salt will deeply penetrate the meat and the water (with the salt) will go back into the interior. This is why it requires many hours to do it right and where the Urban Legend that the salt dries out the meat came from. Or maybe it came from the old method of packing huge amounts of salt into barrels of meat to act as a preservative (hugely more than used here).

4. The method I learned uses about 1/2 teaspoon of *kosher* salt per pound, which is about half or less the amount mentioned in the ingredients here, depending on the chop sizes. And that ratio seems to work for me regardless of the meat, the cut or how thick it is. The salt is just added more densely with thick meats which have less surface area. Which may be why some found it too salty. I've used up to maybe a full tsp per pound if I came up short but never more. That's my personal preference and agrees with what I was taught. If using table salt, use half that because one unit of kosher salt = two units of table salt. Kosher is better because it is easier to sprinkle more evenly.

I measure out 1/2 tsp per pound of kosher salt into a small prep bowl. That way I have a guide as to how much salt I'm using. If I come up short I'll measure out a similar amount again but try not to use it all. That way I never use more than one teaspoon per pound. Using this technique I've never over-salted, at least to my taste.

Dry brining is the bomb. I've blown away a lot of people with my amazingly juicy pork chops in particular, and I tend to cook it to 145F although in principle I agree that 135F is right and there is no food safety reason to cook pork more done than a medium rare steak. I just don't have the courage yet, although I've been known to "under cook it" to 135-138F or so) from time to time :). And I lived!